E-Book Overview
Simon & Schuster, New York, 1966. — 403 p.
With half a million copies in print, How to Read a Book is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader, completely rewritten and updated with new material.Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them—from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Readers will learn when and how to judge a book by its cover, and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.Also included is instruction in the different techniques that work best for reading particular genres, such as practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science works.Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests you can use measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension, and speed.
E-Book Content
HOW TO READ A BOOK A Guide to Reading the Great Books BY
MORTIMER J. ADLER 1966 SPECIAL EDITION
PUBLISHED IN PRINT BY
SIMON AND SCHUSTER NEW YORK
From the front flap (1966): If any man in the world is qualified to write on the subject of reading, and particularly on the subject of reading Great Books, that man is Dr. Mortimer J. Adler. Dr. Adler is an eminent philosopher, a teacher and the author of a number of best-sellers including “How To Read A Book.” His knowledge of the great books of history is unparalleled. Using the library facilities of the University of Chicago, in a project sponsored by the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Dr. Adler was responsible for developing the revolutionary Syntopicon—the first index of ideas in the history of the world. Just as a dictionary indexes words, and an encyclopedia indexes facts, the Syntopicon indexes the ideas on which western civilization is based—making it possible for a reader to compare the thoughts of all the great men of some 3000 years, on any subject, in a matter of moments. The Syntopicon was developed at considerable cost in time, effort and money. The study which Dr. Adler directed took nearly eight years—a total of some 400,000 manhours of work—and cost over one million dollars. Producing the Syntopicon involved reading and rereading all the great books many times over. One of the most fascinating conclusions to come out of this study was the observation that our complex Western Civilization revolves around only 102 great ideas. All other concepts are subtropics of these great ideas (see back flap).
ELECTRONIC EDITION Copyright © 2002 by The Center for the Study of the Great Ideas Produced by The Center for the Study of the Great Ideas Chicago
PRINT EDITION Copyright © 1940, 1966 by Mortimer J. Adler Special Edition 1966 Published by Simon and Schuster, Inc. 630 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10020
TO MARK and ARTHUR
Preface IN THIS SPECIAL EDITION of How to Read a Book, I can make clear what was not entirely clear when the book was first published in 1940. Readers of the book knew, though its title did not indicate this with complete accuracy, that the subject was not how to read any book, but how to read a great book. In 1940 the time was not yet ripe for such a title, with which the book might not have reached the large audience that it did. Today, with hundreds of thousands of American families engaged in reading and discussing the great books—books that alone require the kind of reading described—the situation is much changed. I have therefore added a new subtitle for this edition: A Guide to Reading the Great Books. How to Read a Book attempts to inculcat